At a meeting Monday night at the Ravalli County Fairgrounds, Sheriff Chris Hoffman said over 700 people gathered to hear news and share information about the Roaring Lion Fire that has grown to over 4,000 acres in just three days.

"We've had support coming in from every corner of government around the state since Sunday," Hoffman said. "We've been in touch with our entire congressional delegation, our state representatives, the governor's been on the phone to me no fewer than a half a dozen times wanting to know how the state can help and what resources they can provide to help fight this fire. We've been very well supported all along.

Hoffman said the one thing people who attended the meeting were most hungry for was information.

"Other than the folks who have been directly affected by the fire, there just hasn't been a lot of time to provide information to the folks in general, and we were able to introduce everyone who's providing services during this time," he said. "We were able to re-introduce the community to Greg Poncin's Type One Incident management team. We've come to know them very well since they've responded many times to fires here in Ravalli County since 2000. I think the community responded very well, and it's a reminder when something like this happens, of what a great place the Bitterroot is. We saw that again last night. It was a very worthwhile gathering."

Two updates that have come from the Ravalli County Sheriff;s Office include information about the fact that the east side of Westside Road from Roaring Lion to Westbridge Road and both sides of Wyant Lane and Nighthawk Lane have been added to the Stage 2 evacuation area. No one will be allowed in Stage 2 evacuated areas due to expected fire behavior.

In addition, a Stage 1 Alert and Warning has been added for the areas west of Westbridge Road from North Canyon Drive west and north including both sides of Blodgett Camp Road continuing to the Blodgett Campground and including Canyon Creek Road.

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